NEWSFLASH

SINGAPORE NOT READY TO SIGN SOUTHEASST ASIAN ANTI-TERROR PACT

MANILA, December 11, 2002 (STAR)  Singapore said Wednesday it is not yet ready to join a Southeast Asian anti-terrorism agreement now linking five countries in the region.

"Our ministry of home affairs feels it is necessary for us to study the agreement quite carefully to see that we comply with all the legal requirements," Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Tony Tan told AFP at the end of his three-day visit to the Philippines.

"I think it will require a bit of time to study it," he said, when pressed for a time frame.

Thailand was the latest among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to accede to the "Agreement on Information Exchange and Establishment of Communication Procedures" to fight terrorism and other transnational crime.

After Thailand signed the pact at the ASEAN leaders meeting in Cambodia in November, Brunei said it would also come aboard by the end of the year to expand it into a six-member pact.

Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia first forged the pact in May -- focused on sharing intelligence, resources and personnel to fight terrorism -- before Cambodia acceded to the agreement two months later.

Despite calls by other ASEAN members to join the pact, Singapore had said in the past that it would rely on bilateral security arrangements to combat terrorism, the region's current number one enemy after a blast in the Indonesian tourist paradise of Bali left more than 190 dead.

The Bali carnage was the worst global terrorist attack since the September 11 attacks in the United States.

Tan said that the agreement was a "plus" to combat terrorism in the context of strengthening international cooperation.

Pending Singapore's accession to the pact, Tan said there were other avenues for cooperation in the fight against terrorism by ASEAN countries "and we should pursue this as well.

The other ASEAN members are Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar.

Reported by: Sol Jose Vanzi